I’m sad that this is worth mentioning. But if you are dealing with hunger amid threats to SNAP benefits, rice and beans are very cheap per meal and can be bought in bulk. Here’s some tricks I’ve learned:

If you get dried beans, make sure you follow the directions to pre-soak them. Canned beans are easier to prepare, just dump in near the end of cooking to heat them up. Dried lentils don’t need to be pre-soaked, but I prefer to cook them separately and drain the water they boil in.

Brown rice, barley, or other whole grains have much more protein than white rice and I find them more filling. Whole grains take longer to cook than white grains.

Frying diced onions in the pot before adding the grains and water is an easy way to kick the flavor up a notch. Use a generous amount of cooking oil (light olive oil is healthiest) for cost effective calories and help making the meal more filling.

Big carrots or celery in bulk are pretty cheap too. I like to dice carrots by partially cutting length wise into quarters, but leave the small end intact to keep the carrot together to make it easier to dice down the side. Add them to the same pot as the grains after the grains start to soften. Beets are also great; skin and cube then boil separately until soft. Change up your veggie to get a mix of vitamins

Get some bulk garlic powder, hot sauce, paprika, cumin, crushed red pepper, black pepper, etc. Season and salt the pot to taste.

You’ll only need 1-2 pots and a cutting knife/board for veggies.

I recommend Harvard’s Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition information and they have some recipes too

Edit: discussing big changes in diet with a primary care doctor or registered dietician is generally a good idea.

Probiotic supplements may help with gas.

As a bonus this sort of meal has a very small environmental footprint.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    291·
    17 hours ago

    Bean stew is one of the most delicious things you can cook whether you can afford more or not. Here’s my recipe. Everything but the beans, onions, carrots, paprika, oil and salt is optional and mainly improves the taste profile. Works with almost any kind of bean. Can be done with dried beans too but you gotta handle softening them up first.

    Bean stew/soup v4.1

    • 3x beans cans - 540ml
    • 2x onion heads
    • 2x carrots
    • 2tbsp paprika, 1tbsp smoked paprika
    • cooking oil
    • 1/2 tsp salt (or less) and 1/2tsp of MSG
    • 2x chicken or beef cubes
    • marinara/tomato puree/diced tomatoes/vinegar/some other acid
    • Add beans with some water in a pot. Use OG bean water too.
    • Chop onions and carrots in small pieces.
    • Fry onions and carrots in a pan with oil.
    • Once fry is done, add all the paprika and stir for 10-20s then pour into the pot, let it boil once.
    • Add the beef/chicken cubes.
    • Add spearmint, lots.
    • Add some more oil if needed. Olive is great.
    • Add 3-4tbsp marinara, diced tomatoes or balsamic vinegar.
    • Add 1/2 tsp salt (or less) and 1/2tsp of MSG.
    • Test for salt, it might be good enough.

    Eat it with some bread or by itself. It goes well with any type of hot pepper too.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
      5·
      10 hours ago

      You’ve kind of made a variety of chili. All you’d really have to do to transform it, is add chili powder and cumin. Everybody thinks chili powder is what makes chili, but that only gives it the heat. Cumin is the real flavor of chili. Add both too taste, and it’s delicious.

      BTW, a cheap meat to add to chili is ground pork. You can usually find it in one pound rolls near the breakfast sausage. It tends to be significantly cheaper than beef, and sometimes even chicken. It’s really cheap at Aldi. Add it to the beef to economically fill out the meat in your chili.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
        2·
        6 hours ago

        It’s very similar in ingredients but the taste profile is different since there’s no cumin. It’s also typically of a watery, soupy consistency although there are thicker versions.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
          4·
          5 hours ago

          I once made a batch, and was trying to figure out why it didn’t taste right. I added more chili pepper, but that wasn’t it. I finally remembered that I had forgotten to add cumin. Dumped some in, and it tasted great!

          I have been in multiple debates about whether chili should be thick, like a stew, or more liquid, like a soup. I maintain that the proper consistency is right in the middle, but that’s hard to keep when it’s simmering on the stove, thickening up.

          • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            3·
            5 hours ago

            That’s interesting in that none of my chili recipes have cumin as an ingredient, so I’d say that is far from essential.

            • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
              1·
              4 hours ago

              Recipe? I’ve been perfecting my chili game for decades, and I’ve never used a recipe. We don’t need no stinking recipes!

              If it ain’t got cumin, it ain’t going to taste like chili. Period.

              • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                1·
                3 hours ago

                By recipe, I don’t mean some written down rigid list on ingredients and processes, I mean more in the way of each distinct type of chili. I also have perfected my various chilis over decades and only one, my white chicken chili (which barely counts as chili IMO), has cumin in it. I am sure your chili is great, but I’d almost certainly prefer mine as I consider it perfect.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Yup, fresh or dried. If you’re curious about it, just try the recipe exactly as described and it should come out as intended. I don’t even taste during cooking anymore. I just do it with the right measurements and it comes right every time. It’s an Eastern European dish that has countless versions.